


Of Soulmates, Books, and Spilled Guacamole

by vaskianmountains



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Auguste (Captive Prince) Lives, Auguste does his best in trying to deal with them, Damen and Laurent are both disasters, M/M, also briefly featuring stress-baker!Damen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:26:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24543820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaskianmountains/pseuds/vaskianmountains
Summary: “Youare my soulmate?”Damen had read those very same words countless of times on his arm and imagined countless of ways they might be said, but he had never thought they would be paired with such disdain.Or, The first time Damen and Laurent talk is when Damen is over at Auguste’s to watch the game with their friends. Auguste had specifically told them all to stay away from Laurent, who hated drunk people, but Damen just bumped into him in the kitchen, fell on top of him, and spilled all of the guacamole he’d been holding onto both of them as well as the book Laurent had been carrying.
Relationships: Damen/Laurent (Captive Prince)
Comments: 30
Kudos: 302





	Of Soulmates, Books, and Spilled Guacamole

**Author's Note:**

> I realized that only having written a soulmate AU that’s pure angst wouldn’t do, so I decided to write another one that’s a lot more lighthearted and a bit silly. This time it’s a modern soulmate AU of the variant in which the first thing your soulmate says to you is written on your body, and Damen and Laurent’s first meeting doesn’t quite go as they had imagined it would.
> 
> I’m not sure these all need warning for, but just to be sure: Damen and most of his friends have been drinking during the first part of the fic (but the the drinking itself isn’t actually on page and there are only references to it). There is some canon-typical romantic/sexual (well mostly just sexual) interest in Laurent from some of the Prince’s Guard. Like in canon, it’s all one-sided and there is no serious intent on pursuing it, they just think he’s hot. There is some canon-typical crude language (to be fair, there is actually less in here than in canon). Overall, the fic is pretty light-hearted, but there are also references to hypothetical sexual misconduct, but nothing actually happens in the fic, and there are also no references to anything that may have happened in the past (so if you want to, you can see this as an AU in which no csa happened). 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this! ❤️

“ _You_ are my soulmate?”

Damen had read those very same words countless of times on his arm and imagined countless of ways they might be said, but he had never thought they would be paired with such disdain. 

He had imagined his soulmate to be quick and perceptive, and that when Damen said the words written on their body, they would, with bright eyes and in wonderment, voice their realization. Or maybe it would be late into the evening, and his soulmate would be slightly tipsy when they boldly came up to Damen and intuitively declared him to be their soulmate with a playful smile. 

He had never thought his soulmate might be unhappy with finding out who Damen was. 

Okay, so maybe Damen had just crashed into Laurent and toppled them both onto the ground. And maybe he had spilled all of the guacamole he’d been holding onto both Laurent and the book he had been carrying. And maybe, instead of apologizing, Damen had softly brushed his fingers across Laurent’s cheek, and told him, “I think I could look into your eyes for days, and find my entire world hidden within them.”

And while maybe that might have been true (no, Damen was certain it was true), he could see how that was perhaps not the most appropriate thing he could have said in this situation. To be fair to himself, after the numerous drinks he had had, he was a lot closer to drunk than sober by now, so he couldn’t be blamed too much for not following social scripts, and instead saying what was in his heart. But maybe Auguste had expressly told them all to stay away from his brother, because Laurent hated drunk people, and this was just one more thing that damned Damen further.

“Are you going to get off me any time soon?” Laurent asked. “Or do you think that us being soulmates means that you can keep me underneath you whenever you want for however long you want?”

Damen quickly scrambled off Laurent. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I didn’t see you when—”

”You can keep your apologies,” Laurent said. He had sat up, and was flipping through his book now. The guacamole had gotten inside of it and soaked into the pages. “You can keep my book too. There’s no way I can still read it like this.”

Damen watched as Laurent stalked out of the kitchen. He wanted to stop him, so he could try to make things alright between them, but he suspected that it would only make Laurent angrier if Damen didn’t allow him to freely leave right now. 

Damen sighed, and tried to not feel too sorry for himself. He cleaned up the guacamole on the floor, and tried to get the worst of it out of his shirt with some paper towels. When he was done, and had mostly succeeded in just smearing it out even more, he went back to the living room where everyone—everyone but Laurent—was still watching the game.

“Hey Damen!” Lazar called out. “You were supposed to bring the guacamole in a bowl, not on your shirt.” Normally, Damen would have flipped him off, but he had more important things on his mind right now.

“Auguste,” Damen said, as he slumped down on the couch again in between him and Nikandros, “Your brother hates me.”

“What did you do?” Auguste asked.

“I bumped into him, and then I fell on top of him, and in the process I spilled all of the guacamole onto both of us.”

Damen got hit by a peanut, and when he followed the direction it had come from, he found Orlant grinning at him. “Good luck with the grudge Laurent is going to hold against you. You might just find out why people call him a cast iron bitch.”

Auguste threw a peanut back at Orlant, managing to hit him right on the forehead despite the couple of drinks he’d had, before turning to Damen “It’s certainly not ideal,” he said, “but Laurent should be able to get over it if that’s all.”

Damen stayed silent. However, he had never been good at hiding his emotions, so he wasn’t surprised that Auguste still figured out that there was more going on.

“What else happened?”

“Well,” Damen started, but he wasn’t sure if Laurent would want him to share that they were soulmates. Damen wouldn’t be surprised that if he did share, Laurent would be threatening him with bodily harm the next time they saw each other, so instead he opted for, “I told him his eyes were beautiful, and that they contained my entire world.”

Auguste’s eyes widened. 

“Does he hate it when people compliment his eyes?” Damen asked. 

Lazar laughed. “Laurent is definitely not someone who appreciates being wooed with cheesy pickup lines. And he’ll be sure to let anyone who tries know that.”

“And you would know,” Orlant told Lazar, “as you’re the one with first hand experience in that area.”

“Don’t pretend like you’re the only person in the world who doesn’t have the hots for Laurent.”

“I wasn’t the one who was stupid enough to—“

“Shut it,” Jord said, who was, as designated driver, the only one of them who was still entirely sober. “Both of you. Laurent deserves more respect than you two gossiping about him.”

“Playing the knight in shining armor isn’t going to get Laurent to bend over for you,” Lazar said. “Especially not when he isn’t even here to see you do it.”

“I’m not interested in Laurent. I have a boyfriend, remember?”

“With all of the bitching he does, how could I ever forget Aimeric? But also,” Lazar pulled Pallas, who was already practically sitting in his lap, closer to himself, “he is entirely besides the point here, when I have a boyfriend too.”

Damen paid their squabbling no mind. “I fucked up,” he said.

Nikandros patted him on the shoulder. “I’m sure it isn’t the end of the world, Damen.”

Damen turned to Auguste, who still hadn’t said anything again. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”

“Well,” he started, but didn’t elaborate any further. Instead, he got up and said, “I’m going to check up on Laurent.”

“Shit,” Damen muttered.

Nikandros patted his shoulder again. “I’m sure you can deal with one blond rejecting you.”

* * *

Laurent ignored the knocking on his door. He wasn’t going to do this now. He didn’t want to do this ever, but he especially didn’t want to now. 

“Laurent, are you alright?” Auguste’s voice carried through the door. When Laurent didn’t answer, he asked, “Can I come in?”

“No, my door is staying closed until all of your friends are gone,” Laurent called back. At least Auguste wasn’t the one person he wanted to see least right now, but he still wasn’t going to do this. 

Thankfully, Auguste didn’t try knocking again. He had always known when to give Laurent space, and Laurent had been grateful for that his entire life. Instead, Laurent’s phone pinged with a new message. 

> **Auguste:** do you need me to send everyone away?
> 
> **Laurent:** No. 
> 
> **Auguste:** because if you want me to then i will
> 
> **Auguste:** or i can send just damen away if that’s what you want

The childish part of Laurent was tempted to take Auguste up on the offer, but he stamped it out. He also ignored the part of him that made his heart flutter lightly at finding out his soulmate’s name.

> **Laurent:** No, you can have your night with your friends. I just want to be left alone right now, but I’ll be fine.
> 
> **Auguste:** okay
> 
> **Auguste:** just let me know if you need anything
> 
> **Auguste:** and i’ll come and bring it
> 
> **Laurent:** Okay.
> 
> **Auguste:** i love you lolo 
> 
> **Laurent:** I love you too.

Normally, Laurent would be exasperated by Auguste’s inability while texting to use one message to say what he wanted or even just full sentences (or his lack of proper capitalization and punctuation, for that matter), but right now Laurent was grateful. He was grateful, because it meant that his soulmate’s name was no longer visible on the screen. He still felt an irrational need to scroll up so he could stare at it for a while, but he managed to lock his screen and put his phone away without looking.

He tried to put his mind to other things, but found himself inadvertently drifting back to Damen. It almost had him wishing he had taken up Nicaise’s offer and gone clubbing with him, Ancel, and Aimeric. The only reason why it remained ‘almost’ was because it would have meant even more drunk people than were currently occupying his living room. 

Honestly, Laurent could normally deal with his brother’s friends just fine, even when they got drunk. However, Auguste had also made certain to let Laurent know that there were going to be some guys coming over who he’d only been friends with for a relatively short time and who had therefore not been over to their place before. So really, Laurent should’ve known better and just stayed upstairs. Or he should’ve at least left his book in his room when he was heading downstairs to grab something to drink, and not continued reading while walking towards the kitchen without paying any attention to his surroundings. Putting it like that, it was becoming increasingly obvious that this could all have been easily avoided. 

Laurent sighed, and decided to go take a shower. Hopefully, it would help to clear his mind like showers usually did. Besides, he could still smell the guacamole on himself despite having changed clothes already. 

* * *

When Auguste came back from checking up on Laurent, he sat back down next to Damen and patted his thigh before turning to Jord to ask how the game was going. Auguste’s face didn’t look promising, nor was his silence about Laurent, but Damen wondered whether he should still take this as a good sign. After all, Auguste was still willing to sit next to him and hadn’t thrown him out of the house.

Damen tried to focus on the game, he did, but his mind kept returning to his encounter with Laurent in the kitchen. If it hadn’t been for Nikandros cheering next to him, he wouldn’t even have realized that their team had defeated Auguste, Jord, Orlant, and Lazar’s team. (To be fair, Pallas hadn’t seemed to have noticed either, but, to be fair again, he was having the opposite problem of Damen, having been completely pulled into Lazar’s lap by now.)

When he was supposed to leave with Nikandros, Jord, and Orlant (Pallas was going home with Lazar who lived within walking distance of Auguste’s, so neither would need to be driven by Jord), Damen turned to Auguste again. 

“You’re going to need to at least let him sleep on it, Damen,” Auguste told him. 

Damen wanted to ask more, but Nikandros was yelling at him to get in the car, so he nodded and resigned himself to not being able to do anything else about this tonight. 

When Damen lay in bed, he still could not stop thinking of Laurent. His mind kept replaying their encounter, and supplied various alternatives on how he might have done better. Thankfully, his thoughts hadn’t turned to scenarios of a more intimate nature. Although, he was sure that if he did eventually manage to fall asleep, his dreams would have no problem taking him there. Laurent was beautiful. Damen had already known so from having seen him in passing, but up close it was even more obvious, even with his eyebrows knit together in a glare and the disapproving downward curl of his lips. And, from what Damen had been able to feel from lying on top of him, Laurent’s body had to be beautiful too.

Damen sighed and opened his eyes again. If his train of thought continued like that, he was certain that his mind would have no problem supplying him with images of what Laurent’s body might look like, even while he was still awake. As he glanced at his alarm, he saw that it was already past 3 a.m., and he decided to get out of bed again. He wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon, anyway.

When he got to the kitchen, he did what he always did when his thoughts started spiraling with worry: he baked. 

* * *

It was past midnight when Auguste knocked on Laurent’s door again. “They’ve all gone home. Can I come in now? Or do you want to wait until morning?”

“You can come inside,” Laurent said. He closed his laptop and made room on his bed for Auguste to sit next to him.

He still didn’t want to do this. He also still didn’t want this entire situation to be an actual thing. However, he also knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore this forever, and a conversation with Auguste about it was going to be inevitable, so might as well get it over with right away.

“So, Damen huh?” Auguste asked as he sank down on the bed.

Laurent ignored that light fluttering feeling that his soulmate’s name invoked in him again. Instead, he focused on something more important and much, much worse. “He told you? All of you?” Like Laurent’s evening couldn’t have gotten any worse.

“No, but he told us what he said to you, and as your brother I know what words are written on your arm. I don’t think he even realized that I figured it out.” Auguste said. “Anyway, from what I’m gathering, you’re not handling this very well.”

“You’d expect me to handle this well?”

“I don’t know. I had always hoped you’d be happy when you found out who your soulmate was,” Auguste said, “that you’d be excited.”

“He threw me onto the ground, and spilled guacamole all over me and my book!”

“Yes, Damen told us. And I know that’s not great, but aside from that how are you feeling about this?”

Well, for one, Laurent’s heart would still not behave normally, but he wasn’t going to tell Auguste that. “I just—why did he need to be one of your jock friends?”

“I thought you didn’t actually mind my friends, and that you just liked to antagonize them.”

“I don’t,” Laurent said. And truly, he didn’t actually mind them all that much, even considered them his own friends. Yes, even Lazar who still continued to flirt with him, especially when he was drunk. Whenever they came over, Auguste would still tell them to stay away from Laurent, but by now it was only done in jest and Laurent would often even join them.

“But that doesn’t mean I want one of them to be my soulmate!” he told Auguste.

“You don’t actually know Damen yet, though. Him and I haven’t been friends for very long yet, but I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of what kind of man he is. And,” Auguste offered a smile, “I think you could really like Damen. He can be a bit obtuse, incredibly so sometimes—”

Laurent interrupted his brother, “You really aren’t selling him.”

Auguste grinned. “And here I thought himbos were supposed to be good.”

“Auguste...” 

“What?” That stupid grin was still there.

“Himbos are a fantasy. They’re only desirable because they have so little intellect that they could never be threatening even if they tried.”

“Surely they’re also desirable because of how attractive they are.”

“Auguste, I don’t want a soulmate, however attractive he might be, who can’t even recognize that his own reflection isn’t a separate person from himself!”

“So you’re not denying that you think Damen is attractive.”

Laurent refused to answer that. Unfortunately, the heat spreading across his cheeks would tell Auguste all he wanted to know.

“But,” Auguste said, and his grin turned into a soft smile that Laurent might have hated even more, “if you only want the looks of a himbo and not the lack of intellect, then it’s a good thing that I was going to tell you that Damen can be obtuse sometimes, but that he’s also actually really smart. I don’t think he’d have a problem keeping up with you. I think he’d match you very well in fact.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,” Laurent said, “because he’s not going to want anything to do with me again.”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Because I’m me! And I don’t leave good first impressions.” Or, for that matter, good second impressions, or good third ones. Or maybe they weren’t good, but still accurate, and Laurent just wasn’t a nice person.

“It can’t have been much worse than spilling guacamole all over your soulmate the first time you met him. I’m sure Damen wouldn’t have expected you to be a ray of sunshine after that.”

Laurent stayed silent.

“What did you do, Laurent?”

Laurent, very carefully, did not look at Auguste. “I called him a sexual predator.”

“You did _what_?” Auguste asked. “Why would you—” Auguste stopped himself. When he continued again, his tone had changed. “Laurent, did he try anything?”

Auguste’s concern only made Laurent feel worse. “No! I just—” Laurent forced in a breath. “He fell on top of me, and then he didn’t immediately get off me again.” Damen had just kept lying there, staring, at first, with an almost religious kind of awe at Laurent. And then, after Laurent had spoken, he had looked like a kicked puppy. Or like a puppy who was still high from having played around in the mud, but was currently being admonished by it’s owner for the mess it had made all over the house after storming back inside, not understanding at all what it had done wrong. All the while, Laurent had been stuck underneath him, free to get acquainted with the feel of his soulmate’s physique. And while Laurent was slowly growing horrified by his own reaction to that—because yes, Auguste was right, Laurent couldn’t deny that Damen was extremely good looking—Damen still would not move. “So I asked him whether he thought that us being soulmates entitled him to keeping me underneath him.”

Auguste sighed. 

“I know that was out of line,” Laurent said, “but I was getting close to panicking, and so I said the first thing that came to mind that would be sure to get him off me. It also just so happened to be the thing that is going to make him regret having me as his soulmate.”

Auguste wrapped his arm around Laurent. “I know you’re not used to it, but you might have to apologize then. However, when you’ve done that, and probably even if you didn’t, I’m sure Damen would very much like to get to know the person who resides behind that wall of caustic insults you always keep raised. And Laurent?” Auguste squeezed him closer. “I don’t think Damen would ever regret having you as his soulmate.”

* * *

The next day, Damen stood in front of the closed door of Laurent’s bedroom. He had been standing there for a while now. 

He should not be this nervous. He reminded himself that he was actually good at being charming, and that he regularly made people swoon. But this was also Laurent, and Damen did not think swooning was a thing Laurent did. Besides, with Laurent being his soulmate, the stakes were a lot higher now than when flirting with a pretty guy or girl who Damen was unlikely to end up wanting to spend the rest of his life with. 

He told himself that it was going to be fine. Yes, Auguste had told him to not fuck up again with a tight smile that wasn’t a smile at all, but he had also allowed Damen into their house and given him the directions to Laurent’s bedroom. He wouldn’t have done that if he thought Damen was actually likely to fuck up again.

He took a deep breath, and knocked on Laurent’s door. 

Laurent didn’t come to open the door. Instead, he called out, “What is it, Auguste?”

“It’s not Auguste.” Damen was proud of the evenness of his voice. 

The door opened then to reveal Laurent, a slight frown on his face. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to apologize,” Damen said, “for bumping you onto the ground. And for spilling guacamole all over you and your book, and—here.” Damen pressed the gift-wrapped books he was holding into Laurent’s space.

Laurent accepted the gift, but looked at it distastefully, as though, like his book from last night, it was covered in guacamole. “What is this?” He asked. “You’re not hoping that I’ll fall in love with you if you just buy me enough gifts, right?”

“That’s not—it’s part of the apology. I figured the least I could do after ruining your book beyond being readable was to get you a replacement copy.”

“This is about double the size of that of book though,” Laurent pointed out. 

“Yes, I—” Damen once again wondered, like he had when still at the bookstore that morning, whether this had been a good idea or whether he should have left the second book at the store. “When I was at the bookstore, I noticed there was a sequel, so I got that for you as well in case you might want to immediately read it after finishing the first one. But,” and Damen hoped that a little bit of playfulness might help to improve the mood between them, “if you don’t want it, I can always keep it myself.”

“What would you even do with it?”

“The story sounded really interesting, so I got myself a copy of the first book too. Having the sequel ready for when I finish it would probably be nice.”

“You enjoy reading?” There seemed to be actual interest in Laurent’s face now.

“I guess I do prefer listening to audio books, but yes.”

“Well, then you’re going to be out of luck when you finish the book,” Laurent said, “because I’m not going to give the second one back to you.” To prove his point, Laurent walked over to one of his many bookshelves and placed the books on top of it. 

Maybe this really was going well, Damen thought. 

“I—” Laurent started when he had walked back to Damen. After a breath he continued again, “I suppose I should also apologize for what I said to you. About how you felt about keeping me underneath you.”

“It’s alright,” Damen said. Honestly, he hadn’t even realized that Laurent might owe him an apology too. “I really should have gotten off you sooner than I did.” Then, in the hope that Damen was truly right about this going well, he said, “I also made you brownies. I left them downstairs in case it was too much at once in combination with the books.”

“You made me brownies?”

“Yes. I couldn’t sleep last night, and when I’m stressed I bake. As I still had all the ingredients at home, I decided to make you some caramel brownies. I just hope they’re not too sweet for your taste.”

“It isn’t possible for a pastry to be too sweet,” Laurent said. “I think the correct question would be whether you’re competent enough of a baker that they’re actually any good.”

Damen laughed. “My mom’s a baker. I would never dare to disappoint her by making bad brownies.”

Laurent just kept looking at him as Damen smiled. His eyebrows were pulled together in a light frown, and his pupils, if Damen’s own eyes weren’t lying to him, were bigger than they had been before. When he caught himself staring, Laurent quickly looked away. “Then I’m sure they’ll be good,” he said. His tongue quickly darted out to lick his lips. Damen couldn’t help but follow the movement, certain it hadn’t been out of anticipation for the taste of caramel brownies, but for something else that was perhaps equally enticing.

He was proven right when Laurent looked up at him again, and took a confident step closer to him. Damen leaned forward to make his height an offering, and Laurent took it as he stood up on his tip toes and pressed their lips together. Damen cupped Laurent’s cheek in his palm. Carefully, he changed the angle and took Laurent’s mouth deeper.

“So you’re no longer mad about the guacamole?” Damen asked after he reluctantly pulled away.

“Well, people always do say it’s no use crying over spilled guacamole, no?”

“That’s not how the saying goes.”

“Don’t ruin it.”

Damen brushed his thumb across Laurent’s cheek. “I would never dare to dream of ruining this,” he said, and leaned in for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this ❤️ I’d love to know what you thought. Comments and kudos always brighten my day 💖
> 
> I’m on tumblr: [@vaskianmountains](https://vaskianmountains.tumblr.com/)


End file.
